THE BYE BYE MAN (2016)

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Stacy Title
Cast: Doug Jones, Carrie-Anne Moss, Douglas Smith, Cressida Bonas, Lucien Laviscount
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Rating: PG13 (Horror)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 12 January 2017

Synopsis: People commit unthinkable acts every day. Time and again, we grapple to understand what drives a person to do such terrible things. But what if all of the questions we're asking are wrong? What if the source of all evil is not a matter of what...but who? From the producer of The Strangers and Oculus comes The Bye Bye Man, a chilling horror-thriller that exposes the evil behind the most unspeakable acts committed by man. When three college friends stumble upon the horrific origins of the Bye Bye Man, they discover that there is only one way to avoid his curse: don't think it, don't say it. But once the Bye Bye Man gets inside your head, he takes control. Is there a way to survive his possession?

Movie Review:

Well, where does one quite begin to talk about the movie? Despite the cheesy title and the hackneyed story arc – a haunted house, its terrified new tenants, their discovery of the macabre backstory, the rabid attempts at crisis management – the earlier trailers for the movie did suggest the potential to deliver some solid scares. Disappointingly enough, that’s about it for the fun bits and for the most part of the actual film, insipidity takes over.

Scripted by Jonathan Penner and directed by his wife Stacy Title, the film opens with a scene in a suburban American neighbourhood in Madison, Wisconsin in 1969. A certain man by the name of Larry Redmon (Leigh Whannell) apparently goes berserk, gunning down his family members one by one, before finally killing himself, in an attempt to wipe out all who hold the information to a ghastly secret. Fast forward to present day, college student Elliot (Douglas Smith), his girlfriend Sasha (Cressida Bonas) and his best friend John (Lucien Laviscount) move into a large, run-down house and start to sense strange things happening to and around them. All hell starts to break loose when Elliot discovers some scribblings in the second-hand nightstand in his bedroom: repeated scrawls of “Don’t say it; don’t think it” and subsequently, an ominously-inscribed “Bye Bye Man”. A psychic friend Kim (played by Jenna Kanell, who reminds one of Neve Campbell circa the latter’s horror-flick days in the nineties) joins in the fray and confirms the presence of paranormal forces during a séance with the three lead characters. As the story proceeds, and without giving too much away, the Bye Bye Man works his curse on the minds of his victims, causing them to hallucinate and driving them against each other in ways that end violently.

In terms of delivering the scares, the film sadly (and badly) misses the mark, considering that much more has been done with much less (think modern horror classics like Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project that were made with budgets of only five-figure sums; in contrast this film had a budget of over US$7 million). That the titular entity is laughably named the Bye-Bye Man already works against invoking genuine chills in its audiences; it does not help that the moments that are meant to be frightening often do not convey the intended punch and almost always feel too clichéd. Moreover, one too many times, tension is built up, only to be diffused as an anti-climactic joke. One almost wonders if the director-writer team are deliberately not taking themselves too seriously with a tongue-in-cheek take on the genre, but this reviewer often could not decide whether to laugh or groan at these visual antics, which often felt disruptive to the overall flow of the movie.

In addition, apart from the banality of the storyline, the choice of certain recurring motifs that appear during the characters’ hallucinations is not satisfactorily explained in terms of how they relate to the story of the titular demon, and one is left with a poor aftertaste owing what feels like half-hearted storytelling. Arguably the most recognisable and bankable faces play secondary characters with limited screen time: Carrie-Anne Moss (‘Trinity’ of The Matrix fame), who plays a cop investigating the deaths that ensue, and Faye Dunaway (needs little introduction), who plays an old lady filling Elliot in on the details of the backstory in the film’s opening scenes. While Faye Dunaway’s character in particular was a breath of fresh air, neither roles were significant enough to save the film from tanking.

It is worth noting though that the film itself borrows heavily from existing material, being an adaption from a chapter titled “The Bridge to Body Island” in the book “The President’s Vampire”, written by American paranormal author Robert Damon Schneck. As this reviewer has not read the original book, it is difficult to say how much of the weaknesses in the film can be attributed to the constraints inherent in translating the story from print to the big screen, or whether the storytelling flaws are due to the screenwriter tipping the scales in favour of remaining faithful to the original material. Even its basic idea of bad things happening when a certain he-who-shall-not-be-named demon is evoked appears to be a nod to Bernard Rose’s cult classic Candyman (1992); sadly, its own treatment of the premise is bland and uninspired.

That’s not to say the film is without its positives. Douglas Smith actually puts up a credible performance as the protagonist driven to his wits’ end both by the induced hallucinations and by his moralistic struggles in preventing the curse of the Bye Bye Man from spreading to other innocent people. The experience of the director in the genre also manifests itself in elaborate camera actions and decent pacing and editing, although by the time the climax is over, the ending feels like a bit of a let-down, as there were elements that foreshadowed the final outcome. One still wonders if the editing of the ending could have been tighter for a more memorable finale. All things considered, this is one horror flick that seems destined to head straight alongside other forgettable B-grade horror/slasher flicks in the bargain section of the video stores after it finishes its theatrical run.

Movie Rating:

(This horror film suffers from a host of clichés that prevent it from being truly great. If you must, check it out for some cheesy fun rather than the frights, and you might just enjoy the ride a little more)

Review by Tan Yong Chia Gabriel